Null presence

Utilising fantasy and science fiction aesthetics, Hale's work questions the value of emotional investments in virtual worlds and beings in relation to its potentiality of becoming an artificial substitute for human warmth. Hale depicts this uncertainty through a desolate yet tranquil landscape he populates with genderless, artificial beings, whose delicate forms fall somewhere between organic and artifice. Their skin evoking a cold plasticity, is contradicted by their almost lifelike gestures and expressions.

Recalling the highly stylised poses of Mannerist painting, Hale's uncanny narratives draw upon the complexities of emotional entanglements against the desire for emotional communion. The beings' relationships never seem completely grounded and have a darkness looming over them. Through a process of contrasting forces, they are ever caught in cold embraces where intimacy remains just out of reach.